Anyone dabbling in forex?

[sondra_finchley]

Seeing that the dollar is tanking against the euro ( and everything else)- I was shocked yesterday to see how much its depreciated against the swedish krona, even since Christmas (6.40SEK to 6.08SEK today). Yes I know, not a major world currency, but I still have some leftover Christmas money Andreas' parents gave me then which I keep in his Swedish bank account- I made about $20 on the money in there in three months (8% return or so). A very primitive form of forex for sure (along with all the other foreign paper currency floating around this house), but I was wondering if anyone on here actively trades or has thought about moving funds into another currency?

[PenforPrez]

Right now would be a good time to dabble in currency trading. Too bad I don't have any spare cash lying around. :rolleyes:

I'm looking at the yen and the Australian dollar. Some think the yen could go as high as 85. The general consensus I've read is that the Aussie dollar will hit parity with the U.S. dollar mid-term; it's at a little under USD 94 cents right now.

However, it is also notable that the loonie and the pound have pretty much stalled. I say commodities would be a better investment mid-term.

Paul

[Fender247]

I love foreign exchange or at least reading about it and stuff! It would be cool if I had enough extra cash to buy foreign currency. The only thing is that it is very hard to predict like stocks.

Have you ever heard of the quantum fund? Founded by george soros and jim rogers. From 1970 till about 1980 the fund returned like 4000% (yes thousand, not a typo) or something insane like that. But the fund pretty much uses economic trends to speculate on foreign currency. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soros_Fund_Management

I read one of Jim Rogers books called investment biker where he takes a motorcycle trip around the world (after he retired in the early 80's) and he gives his economic take on each country he passes through. Interesting book though. I'd like to read on of soros' books one of these days.

[SpaceMonkey]

If you invest in international stocks through your company's retirement plan, IRA, or other investment account, you are already exposed to foreign currency risk -- probably more than anyone really needs. That's good enough for me.

[TwoRoadsDiverge]

I'd caution, very strongly, against investing in any sort of currency trades if you aren't willing to do a lot of research on the issue. At the very least you should pick up a textbook on International Finance and use that to get yourself acclimated on why and how currencies are traded. Then do your real research.

It's going to take a lot of time, and even then you might(read: probably will) end up losing money. If you don't have significant capital or significant time to invest, you are way better off avoiding the idea completely. Just make diversified investments elsewhere and try to include a hedge against domestic inflation.

Seriously, a lot of people go broke trading currencies. The big players have entire staffs working on this all day, every day. You need to have a legitimate reason as to why you think you will be able to outperform them. Forex is a zero sum game. For every dollar you gain, someone else loses a dollar+. You'd better be confident that you are smarter or have better information than the next person.